A blog about sewing machine repairs,but mainly my hobbies which include old school role playing games, science fiction,films, horror, and general geekery. Sit down and stay a spell.

Monday, July 11, 2016

The K'nyanian Guardian Beasts From The Haunted Caverns For Your Old School Campaigns (Revised)

The K'nyanian guardian beasts are an unholy combination of humanoid flesh, arachnid and insect genetic stock wrapped around a core of weird nearly demonic horror. They are the product of the K'nyanian empire a vast underground culture filled with strange beasts and a highly advanced telepathic civilization who worshiped Cthulhu, Yig, Shub-Niggurath -and, until a certain incident,
Tsathoggua. The K'nyanians had attained immortality & subjugated other humanoid races
before them. They had the technology to biologically modify vanquished races
and other life-forms and reanimate the dead for use as slaves, and could
dematerialize and rematerialize at will. The underground people also
engaged in sadism, depraved practices, horrid rites and unspeakable things such as random body modifications and mutilations of other slave species as entertainment The K'nyanian guardian beasts were a living security system used to watch over & guard certain above ground assets. They were the ancient servants of the K'nyanians watching over the mines and deep places of the forbidden civilizations of K'nyan especially their underground mining, vast tunnel systems, and their near surface and above ground works. They are extremely dangerous creatures capable of unspeakable violence & capable of rapid procreation should the need arrive.

These beasts have been operating in remote locations of Old Earth since the last Ice Age & jealously guard the vast cavern systems & caves of the K'nyanians. They are able to change their metabolism to operate in a wide variety of conditions from the deserts of accursed Atlantis to the icy realms of Old Earth. These guardian beasts can easily adapt & survive in the wastelands of the post apocalyptic world but they don't like the various death lands and deeper wastes because of the extreme conditions and lack of easy victims .

13 in 12 spell resistance Vs CA 12 spell casters. For every CA level less then 12, the chance in twenty increases by one (+1).

Surprises on a 3 in 6 chance

Immune to cold attacks but very vulnerable to fire attacks

Regenerates as a troll due to its partial fungal nature

Victims who receive a bite are webbed and infected with young.

Immune to any mind effecting spells and mind control spells as well because of the fungal nature of the beast's intelligence.

The beast
may choose to infect victims with a special bite that only does 1 to two
points of damage but the victim must save vs. Death or be paralyzed.
The victim will be taken to a nearby underground lair and infected with
1d10 eggs.

Anyone who escapes the beast may be stalked and sent telepathic images of horror and depravity of the beast's past victims.

These beasts
have terribly evil intelligence and may stalk as well as kill those who
slay their kind. These horrors share a telepathic rapture and know what
others of their kind know in a 12 kilometer radius.

The so
called Primordial beasts have been used by the The K'nyanians for thousands of
years as guardians for their operations upon accursed Atlantis and thousands of
other worlds. They have the characteristics of many creatures but are
actually horrors unique to themselves. They make their homes in wide
variety of locations and easily adapt to a wide variety of conditions but often enjoy cold or inhospitable climates with
nearby human settlements. The beasts enjoy feasting on human and near
humanoid victims who stumble into their clutches. They will strike a a lone victim or stalk a party picking off the adventurers one by one sadistically. These
horrors have a bite which places the victim into a near death like
state unless save vs. poison is rolled. The victim is given a strange
poison that not only keeps them alive and suffering but protects them
from the cold. The beasts produces a special webbing that can hold a man
sized creature stationary and protected against extreme cold. The
beasts feed on their charges and lay 1d10 eggs within the victims who
are conscious when the young eat their way out of them. This does 1d4
points of damage per round as the worm like young burst forth from the
victim after feeding upon the marrow of the bones of the poor wretches. The
beasts often hunt down witnesses and other special victims that they
single out. The creatures uses their inhuman senses to ceaselessly track
their targets. They are able to project into the minds of their victims
images of suffering prey and friends that they often take. Those who
witness such sights will be at -2 on all rolls as the telepathic horror
of these images takes it's toll on the sanity and mind of their charges.
Only a save vs wands may lessen the impact of such horrors.These
horrors can live hundreds of years and amass a fortune in artifacts and
gold from past victims. They know that rumors of such treasure bring
adventurers and fool hardy explorers but these are not the only
treasures to be had.

Many alchemists
will pay good gold for samples of the beast's flesh and sections of its
webbing. These are made into potions of regeneration and protection from
cold. There is a 10% chance of those who use such things taking on
certain characteristics of the beast or even becoming one themselves.

Adapted from the public domain Roger Corman film The Beast From Haunted Cave & now updated for my new OSR campaign.

About Me

My name is Eric I started gaming with Dungeons & Dragons white box back in 1977 & haven't looked back. I'm a crafter, sewer, sewing machine repair man who also happens to be a Dungeon Master. Thanks for taking the time to read this.